25 Most Expensive Colleges and Universities

I wrote a post for my college blog over at CBS MoneyWatch today that listed the top 25 price offenders. I’m patching in the list below. Not surprisingly, most of the priciest schools are located on the East Coast.

Why Should We Care?

I’m going to guess that more than 99% of students do not attend schools that cost this much. So why should we care? Elite schools — and that describes most of the schools on this top 25 list – can raise their prices with impunity. Their supersized prices, however, hurt other college students who would never dream of attending these fancy institutions.

3 Responses to 25 Most Expensive Colleges and Universities

I want to thank you for the cold shower and cup of coffee “awakening” you have provided all of us readers when it comes to truly looking closely at where our money is spent.

I remember when “expensive” was a private graduate education which cost $12,000/year in grad school in 1980. And now they want this much for undergrad -per year. If one put the past cost of a year of education into an HP calculator and today’s cost, entered the years in between, they would come up with an IRR which would be close to the interest charged on a Visa or Mastercard! And we wonder why the cost of education is the hardest thing to justify these days.

I suggest that before parents decide to shell out for a year’s education for the above colleges they truly consider if the money can be used more effectively elsewhere, while a son/daughter is considering an ‘undeclared major’. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, when parents funds are wasted on an expensive education without prospects for employment today. Choose wisely. Thanks for all your guidance, Lynn!

This is very informative and I believe this sheds light on a subject that parents don’t necessarily think about automatically. We deal with families everyday that don’t have a realistic depiction of what college actually costs, especially when scholarships are involved. We try and convey the true cost of attendance, families think that since they child is getting a scholarship all is covered. My advice is always look at the pure numbers and make your families decisions based on those. If a child can get a 50% scholarship then, when considering most of the schools on this list, the family is still responsible for roughly $26,000 a year in tuition. Now I understand that these are the most expensive per year schools but this math works with every school in the country. Best to do as much research into every school possible and know what the true cost of attendance will be than to go in blind and be completely surprised.